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Wage Differentials, Discrimination and Inequality: A Cautionary Note on the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce Decomposition Method

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  • Yun, Myeong-Su

    (Inha University)

Abstract

This paper shows how difficult it is to study the roles of discrimination and unobserved skills when studying changes in racial and gender wage gaps over time by examining merits and shortcomings of a popular decomposition method by Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991). The JMP method shows that wage dispersion can offer a compelling explanation of the wage gap. However, JMP have to rely on a few strong assumptions in order to derive their decomposition equation which introduces wage inequality as the price of unobserved skills (the standard deviation of the residuals) into their decomposition equation.

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  • Yun, Myeong-Su, 2007. "Wage Differentials, Discrimination and Inequality: A Cautionary Note on the Juhn, Murphy and Pierce Decomposition Method," IZA Discussion Papers 2937, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2937
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    Cited by:

    1. Essama-Nssah, B., 2012. "Identification of sources of variation in poverty outcomes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5954, The World Bank.
    2. Stijn Broecke & Glenda Quintini & Marieke Vandeweyer, 2018. "Wage Inequality and Cognitive Skills: Reopening the Debate," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth, pages 251-286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Alan Barrett & Adele Bergin & Elish Kelly & Seamus McGuinness, 2016. "Ireland’s Recession and the Immigrant-Native Earnings Gap," Springer Books, in: Martin Kahanec & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), Labor Migration, EU Enlargement, and the Great Recession, pages 103-122, Springer.
    4. Eva Fransen & Janneke Plantenga & Jan Dirk Vlasblom, 2011. "Why do women still earn less than men? Decomposing the Dutch gender pay gap, 1996-2006," Post-Print hal-00719069, HAL.
    5. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde & Irene van Staveren, 2018. "Does Age Exacerbate the Gender-Wage Gap? New Method and Evidence From Germany, 1984–2014," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 108-130, October.
    6. Solomon W. Polachek & Jun Xiang, 2009. "The Gender Pay Gap across Countries: A Human Capital Approach," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 227, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Galvis-Aponte, Luis Armando, 2011. "Diferenciales salariales por género y región en Colombia : una aproximación con regresión por cuantiles," Chapters, in: Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo (ed.), Dimensión regional de las desigualdades en Colombia, chapter 6, pages 209-252, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    8. Hipólito Simón, 2012. "The gender gap in earnings: an international comparison with European matched employer--employee data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(15), pages 1985-1999, May.
    9. Melanie Jones & Ezgi Kaya, 2022. "The gender pay gap: what can we learn from Northern Ireland? [Women’s labour market participation in Northern Ireland: a re-examination of the ‘traditionalism’ argument]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 94-114.
    10. Ezgi Kaya, 2023. "Gender wage gap trends in Europe: The role of occupational skill prices," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(3), pages 385-405, September.
    11. Cho, Donghun & Cho, Joonmo & Song, Bohwa, 2010. "An empirical analysis of the gender earnings gap between the public and private sectors in Korea: A comparative study with the US," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 441-456, September.
    12. Lucas Van Der Velde & Joanna Tyrowicz & Karolina Goraus, 2013. "What is the true gender wage gap? A comparative analysis using data from Poland," Working Papers 2013-28, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    13. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde & Irene van Staveren, 2015. "Differences in the Estimates of Gender Wage Gap Over The Life Cycle," Working Papers 2015-29, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    14. Usamah Fayez Al-Farhan, 2010. "Changes in the Gender Wage Gap in Germany during a Period of Rising Wage Inequality 1999-2006: Was it Discrimination in the Returns to Human Capital?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 293, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    15. Sonu Madan, 2019. "Wage Differentials Among Workers: An Empirical Analysis of the Manufacturing and Service Sectors," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 731-747, December.
    16. Mengdan Li, 2020. "What caused the wage convergence between urban natives and migrants in China?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2275-2288.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wage differentials; decomposition analysis; inequality; discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General

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